Politicians out to cut back on costs of bureaucracy

By RICHARD BRADDELL

WELLINGTON - Red tape - it strangles us all. And even more so for small to medium-sized enterprises that find themselves hardest pressed to meet an array of compliance costs.

The Manufacturers Federation says 5000 new laws and regulations have been passed in the past decade that have an impact on business.

It questions the impact of occupational health and safety legislation, the Resource Management Act and hazardous substances, privacy and carbon tax proposals, seeing them as possible obstacles to growth.

"If we are serious about growth, why have we got virtually no larger-scale development works planned or in progress. Is the Resource Management Act at fault?" ManFed asks.

But while compliance costs are often the bone of contention with the 230,000 employers, they are scarcely the stuff of elections, where much broader issues turn the tide.

Nevertheless, National is already moving on compliance costs and Labour's economic policy statement calls for a review of key legislation, along with a requirement that departments audit compliance costs before proposing legislation.

Labour supports the "integrated, participatory and transparent approach to planning and sustainable development" embodied in the Resource Management Act.

It is concerned at the cost, delay and unevenness of its implementation and would review administration for necessary changes rather than embark on wholesale restructuring.

Oddly enough, politicians appear to be of like mind when it comes to bureaucracy.

A parliamentary select committee, chaired last year by National's Pansy Wong, made recommendations to the Government to reduce red tape. Many of these have been included in National's policies, including reviews of the Building Act and the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

The committee was unusual in that it actually initiated a survey of more than 100 small Wellington businesses on their attitudes to red tape. Surprisingly, the Resource Management Act, that often-cited barrier to commerce, scored low in concerns while returns to Statistics New Zealand, Companies Office financial reporting requirements and tax returns led the list of grumbles.

"Small businesses are quite clear that they are being burdened with too much paperwork," Pansy Wong says.

But agreeing that there is a problem and doing something about it can be two different matters.

The committee recommended that Statistics NZ reduce the number of businesses that have to answer its surveys. But the department replied that the budget was too low to allow survey samples big enough to produce reliable statistics. Cutting the size of samples would further devalue the data.

But work has been done on compliance costs. Enterprise and Commerce Minister Max Bradford has proposed an annual Compliance Cost Reduction Bill, which would allow Parliament to consider amendments to acts that generate business compliance costs.

All Government departments have been asked to cut back the number of regulations.

Pansy Wong says the style of legislation also needs to be taken into account. Smaller firms might prefer guidelines to meet legislative goals.